1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to woodwind instruments and manufacturing methods of bodies of woodwind instruments.
The present application claims priority on Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-63752, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, woodwind instruments have been manufactured by various companies and disclosed in various documents (or catalogues) such as Non-Patent Documents 1-4.                Non-Patent Document 1: Yamaha Corporation in Japan, Catalogue entitled “Clarinets” published on April, 2006.        Non-Patent Document 2: “Oboe” manufactured by Laubin Co. in U.S. (no catalogue is presented because it is a small-scale manufacturer run by family members for manufacturing products only to order).        Non-Patent Document 3: Buffet-Crampon Co. in France, which presents “Clarinets (Luracast)” for intermediate players.        Non-Patent Document 4: Paul Covey Co. in U.S., Catalog of “Oboe”.        
Conventionally, pipes of woodwind instruments such as clarinets, oboes, and piccolos are manufactured by way of cutting work of wooden materials such as rosewood and grenadilla wood which grow in African countries (see Non-Patent Document 1). Non-Patent Document 2 presents combinations of wood and other materials for use in pipes of woodwind instruments, in which resin pipes (or ebonite pipes) are bonded with wood pipes, for example. Non-Patent Document 3 teaches that epoxy resins are introduced into pipes and then chemically solidified. Alternatively, FRP resin layers (i.e., “FR278271: Rigoutat”, not actually realized) are formed on the interior walls of pipes, or wooden powders kneaded with resins (i.e., “FR2701420 (B1): Buffet Green-Line”) are subjected to high pressure molding, thus producing pipes. Non-Patent Document 4 teaches that resins (or plastics) are embedded in and bonded with tone holes of pipes.
In the conventionally-known woodwind instruments, particularly, woodwind instruments having wood pipes, the inside spaces of pipes are expanded due to moisture content included in a player's breath, while the exterior surfaces of pipes are subjected to a low-humidity atmosphere and are thus dried and contracted, so that tensile stress occurs on the exterior surfaces of pipes in circumferential directions; this may cause cracks and flaws.
In the conventionally-known woodwind instruments whose pipes are formed by bonding resin pipes (or ebonite pipes) and wood pipes together, it is very troublesome to produce pipes, which increases the manufacturing cost. Ebonite materials display good sound quality but have very low cutting property; hence they are not suited to mass production.
In the conventionally-known woodwind instruments in which epoxy resins are inserted into pipes and are then chemically solidified, it takes a long time to solidify epoxy resins, and epoxy resins in liquid states before solidification are very difficult to handle. Therefore, there are difficulties in manufacturing.
The conventionally-known woodwind instruments, in which resin layers are formed on the interior walls of pipes, may have problems in manufacturing and sound quality; hence, they have not been put to practical use yet.
The conventionally-known woodwind instruments, in which wood powders kneaded with resins are subjected to high pressure molding, may have isotropic orientations of wooden fibers; hence, they cannot match woodwind instruments having wood pipes in sound quality. No cracks or flaws may occur due to playing, however, they have vulnerability because they may be easily destroyed when dropped or suffer an impact. In addition, they are degraded in cutting property.
The conventionally-known woodwind instruments, in which resins are embedded in tone holes, are very troublesome to manufacture due to the difficulty of bonding resins in connection with tone holes individually. In addition, embedded resins may easily fall out from tone holes due to bonding failures. Whilst they may reduce work in repairing cracks, they may have low crack prevention effects.